THE TRUTH ABOUT MANUAL SAFETIES: “Striker-fired guns without external safeties have been shown to be perfectly safe. Millions of people — including most cops — carry them every single day without incident. If you feel better toting a gun with a manual safety, there are plenty of models out there for you, too.”

TAKING A BOLD STAND: Yes, you should stand up when your plane lands. “The standard objection to the immediate-standers is not only dumb, but self-damning.”

JEFF GOLDSTEIN: Tucker up, Buttercup! With Carlson out at Fox, and Matt Walsh pulled from YouTube, is the Uniparty making its move?

VICTORIA TAFT: We Could See Tucker Carlson’s Split With Fox Coming. “Carlson’s January 6 coverage coincided with the battle within Rupert Murdoch’s family to re-make Fox News.”

READER FAVORITE: JLHT 40X60 Monocular Telescope High Power Monocular for Adults. #CommissionEarned

DISPATCHES FROM THE BLUE ZONES: San Francisco Target puts entire inventory on lockdown amid shoplifting crisis.

A San Francisco Target store has been putting all of its products on lockdown amid a shoplifting crisis that has crippled retailers in the Golden Gate City.

Footage of the store’s interior posted to TikTok Thursday showed aisle after aisle of toiletries and cosmetics under lock and key in the megachain.

While it’s common for stores to lock up small valuable items like razors, heaps of inexpensive large items like mouthwash, shampoo and lotion were also being kept out of reach of the grubby hands of would-be shoplifters, the clip showed.

Enjoy all the convenience of Soviet-style shopping but without the artificially low prices!

THOR HEYERDAHL, CALL YOUR OFFICE: ‘Fingerprints’ confirm the seafaring stories of adventurous Polynesian navigators: These expert navigators sailed thousands of nautical miles long before other societies.

RAYMOND IBRAHIM: Netflix’s ‘Black Cleopatra’: More Problems Than the Obvious.

SCIENCE: The Invented Persona Behind a Key Pandemic Database. “Eventually, Kamil reached a bizarre conclusion: Meyers didn’t really exist, and it was Bogner he had been communicating with. But when Kamil confronted Meyers, he denied that was the case.”

I’VE SEEN THE LOCKDOWNS AND THE DAMAGE DONE: Study finds alcohol-related liver disease soared in nearly all states during the pandemic.

MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT: ‘Trans Rights’ Means No Rights at All.

DEAL OF THE DAY: FORTEM Chair Cushion, Seat Cushion for Office Chair. #CommissionEarned

18 DOWN, 18000 OR SO TO GO: 18 charged with COVID-19 fraud schemes.

GOOD RIDDANCE: Susan Rice to step down as Biden’s domestic policy chief. “The move brings to a close Rice’s prolific, wide-ranging and at times controversial tenure overseeing Biden’s domestic agenda — including some of the thorniest political issues, such as immigration policy. During her more than two years in the role, Biden has signed executive and legislative actions on health care, gun safety, student loans, policing and other key priorities for Democrats.”

Not that you should expect her successor to be any better…

ALSO DEVELOPING: Don Lemon says he has been fired from CNN.

UPDATE: America’s Newspaper of Record: Sad: CNN Fires Don Lemon After Realizing He’s Past His Prime.

JUST APOLOGIZE, TAKE THE L, AND MOVE ON: Anheuser-Busch Really Thinks This Can Save Them.

MARK JUDGE: A Hard-Boiled Take on Jim Comey’s Crime Novel.

DEVELOPING: Tucker Carlson and Fox News part ways.

RULE OF LAW: The Stealth Impeachment of Judge Newman in the Federal Circuit: Chief Judge Kimberly Moore cannot be the judge, jury, and executioner of her colleague.

CHANGE: Tucker Carlson and Fox News Part Ways.

Rumors have swirled that he was looking to leave since they stopped him airing more January 6 video after just a couple of nights, but I don’t know if that’s why he’s leaving or not.

The stock’s falling, leading an acquaintance to comment “$800m settlement for the vote fraud stuff with Dominion, and FOX just zapped $1bil from its market cap in the last 10 min.”

I wonder if Tucker will go to Newsmax or somewhere, or whether he’ll start his own Rumble program.

UPDATE: Lots of speculation that it involved the Dominion settlement, too. Maybe so. And Jim Bennett writes: “I wonder if Fox was getting significant pushback from the part of its viewership that were appalled by his stand on Ukraine. Most Americans of Eastern European descent are conservative, many of those I know are strongly pro-Ukrainian. And many were Fox viewers.” I dunno. I doubt that would be enough to end such a profitable association, but it may have been a factor.

ANOTHER UPDATE: America’s paper of record: Fox News Fires The Only Reason People Watch Fox News. Hence the billion dollar decline in share value.

PRIORITIES: Unprepared for long war, US Army under gun to make more ammo. “The factory — built for the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad just after 1900, when the city was a rising coal and railroad powerhouse — has produced large-caliber ammunition for the military going back to the Korean War. But the buildings are on the National Historic Registry of Historic Places, limiting how the Army can alter the structures.”

FLASHBACK: CORRUPTION AT THE TOP:

Again, the Atlantic Council had seven CIA directors – seven LIVING former CIA directors – serving on its board of directors, as it was serving as Burisma's lobbyist and DHS's 2020 deputized social media censor:https://t.co/G167FnpEOQ

— Mike Benz (@MikeBenzCyber) December 23, 2022

UH-HUH: NYC Mayor Eric Adams Says the ‘Migrant Crisis’ Has ‘Destroyed’ the City.

START SUMMER BARBEQUE: Hoseili Instant Read Meat Thermometer for Grill and Cooking. #CommissionEarned

CIVIL RIGHTS WIN: Colorado House committee kills assault weapons ban after 12-hour testimony.

As introduced, the bill would have prohibited the manufacturing, sale and purchasing of so-called assault weapons in Colorado like AR-15 rifles, which have been used in many mass shootings in the United States in recent decades. That is the bill over 500 people signed up to speak about on Wednesday, with opponents criticizing it as an unconstitutional attack on their Second Amendment rights and supporters saying it is a necessary, overdue measure to reduce the carnage during shootings.

Epps, however, offered amendments following testimony, which she hinted at during her opening comments. The amendments would have narrowed the bill to apply to rapid-fire trigger activators, such as bump stocks. It was an attempted concession to win over support from Democrats opposed to the sweeping, controversial total ban.

Neither amendment passed, essentially sealing the deal that the bill itself would also fail.

But: Colorado closer to establishing waiting periods, new age restriction for firearm purchases.